This past August, I went on the Camino de Santiago in Spain for the first time, choosing to do a 5 day route between Sarria and Santiago. This particular path was 115km, just enough to qualify for the “Compostela” completion certificate. After getting to Sarria the afternoon before, I was excited to start the first day of the trek and see what was in store.

First day’s Route

This first day’s hike was from Sarria to Portomarin and was probably my favorite – the entire experience was brand new, all the landscapes and little towns with stone churches and small farms. The morning started cool with a light fog, that burned off by mid-morning.

According to the map, the day’s distance was 22.0km (13.8miles). But it was hillier than I expected – 350m up and 400m down (1150ft/1300ft). Nothing too steep, but it also wasn’t flat. Fortunately, the uphill was mostly at the beginning when it was cooler. If one includes exploring the town at the end, my phone said I walked 28.1km (17.6mi) that day, for a total of 36,094 steps. My calves were sore that evening!

Note: some people split this 5 day itinerary into a few more days. Also, like many folks, I used the luggage transfer service, so I was mostly just packing water and a hat in my day bag.

Beginning

That first morning, I woke up at 7am and had a nice breakfast downstairs at the hotel. One factor in my wake up time was the 8am luggage transfer service deadline – something that I didn’t want to miss. This morning baggage deadline actually helped keep a consistent schedule for the trip. For many of the days, the walk was roughly 8am to 2-3pm.

One of my overall thoughts first the first day was that the actual natural landscape reminded me in many ways to parts of California (where I used to live), but was maybe slightly greener than California (think more Sonoma than San Diego), and definitely had an Old World vibe. Much of the way was surrounded by small farms, though there was forest as well. There were cows and donkeys in stretches, small towns with churches, as well as pleasant cafes in which to stop.

After leaving the town of Sarria, the path went into a forested area. While I wasn’t sure what to expect, there was quite a bit of variation. Much of the path was dirt, but there was also gravel, and street through the town. The tour agency gave a kilometer-by-kilometer PDF of what to expect (e.g. so you knew that there might be a cafe/bar in 20 minutes), but the Buen Camino phone app was helpful in this regard as well.

The overall morning contour was uphill, and went through some farm villages. There were definitely places to stop, to get something to eat or to buy souvenirs (pilgrim “shells” were popular to hang from one’s bag). Some folks were getting breakfast at places, but there’s a mid-morning snack (“Almuerzo”) tradition around 10-11am that folks were enjoying as well – the latter potentially useful because lunch in Spain is typically not eaten until 2pm. I also carried some chocolate in my bag, to avoid a blood sugar crash.

There were ubiquitous blue and yellow signposts along the route, which showed the direction, and also the distance to Santiago. At the 100km mark, I posted for a photo.

Latter half

By 11am, the fog had essentially burned off, but at the same time, the uphill was mostly done. There were some nice views from the hilltop. I did slightly slip on one of the downhills because there were more slippery pebbles than I expected. The town Portomarin was right next to a river, and I could see that in the distance from the walk.

Arrival to Portomarin

The downhill path on the last part into Portomarin was fairly steep, and after getting there, I crossed the bridge and took the steps up into the city. The town itself is quite small (1,300 people), but was quite beautiful with its river views and location.

By the time I got to my hotel, right near the square, it was roughly 2pm, so I checked in. After putting down my bag and staring at the ceiling for a few minutes, I realized that I should get lunch while it was still proper Spanish lunchtime (lunch is maybe 2-3:30pm there). So I went to a restaurant across the square and got a lovely multi-course lunch with paella and octopus (octopus, or pulpo, is apparently big in the Galicia region of Spain – look for a pulperia). The meal was delicious, and a fairly good value for the money, compared with prices in the US.

I think I may have had a small siesta after lunch, I was noticing some tiredness from walking all day. Too, with the heat from the late summer Spanish sun, early evening is a much nicer time to wander than mid-afternoon.

The cathedral in the center of town was quite worth visiting. I also got the requisite stamp in my journey booklet (you’re supposed to collect at least 2 per day on the route to show at the end). There’s a smaller chapel in town, and some nice over-looks to the river.

I rested some, caught up with email, had some dinner, and overall enjoyed this small town. As the sun was setting in the evening, I also did a video call home to show the nice river view.

As a touch of realism on this really great day and place – my calves were feeling some of the soreness as I went to bed (I wish I’d practiced on some uphill/downhill rather than just flats). It also reminded me of the feeling that I had after the first day of a 10-day bike ride from Amsterdam to Paris, 7 years earlier – “the first day was super fun, but am I going to be able to do it again the next day?” (Spoiler: yes, but stretch/train better next time.)

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